Black Box IC026A-R2, IC026AE-R2 4. Controller Operation

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RS-232↔IEEE 488 INTERFACE CONVERTER

4.1 Controller-Mode (Serial to IEEE) Operation

The IEEE Controller mode allows a serial RS-232 or RS-422 host device to

send data to a single IEEE bus peripheral or to multiple peripherals if they

occupy the same bus address. Applications include interfacing a listen-only

or addressable IEEE printer/plotter to a serial printer port.

Once the interface converter has initialized itself after power-on, it waits for

serial input data. When received, it addresses the selected IEEE device to

listen with the following bus sequence:

ATNUNL,MTA,LAG,*ATN

The data received from the serial host is placed into a circular serial input

buffer. Simultaneously, characters are removed from that buffer and sent

to the IEEE bus device. The serial terminator(s), if present, are not sent.

Instead, the IEEE terminators are substituted and sent in their place.

As long as the serial input buffer is not empty, the interface converter will

continue to send data from it to the IEEE bus device. If the serial input buffer

becomes emptied, the interface converter will command the IEEE bus device

to talk if one of the talk-back features is enabled. This allows the interface

converter to be used as a controller with devices, such as plotters or

instruments, that return status and other information to the host computer.

When the interface converter addresses the IEEE bus device to talk it uses the

following bus sequence:

ATNUNL,MLA,TAG,*ATN

The interface converter then accepts data from the IEEE device and returns

it to the host until the last selected IEEE terminator is detected. The IEEE bus

terminators are replaced by the serial terminators, and these are then sent to

the serial host.

If the IEEE device has been addressed to talk but does not respond or finish

transmission by the time additional characters are received in the circular

serial-input buffer, the talk sequence will be aborted to allow additional

serial information to be sent to the IEEE device.

4. Controller Operation

Contents

Main RS-232IEEE 488 INTERFACE CONVERTER EUROPEAN UNION DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY WARNING! Failure to follow these directives voids emission and immunity compliance. Page Page Page CONTENTS Contents RS-232IEEE 488 INTERFACE CONVERTER CONTENTS 1. Specifications WARNING! CHAPTER 1: Specifications CAUTION 2. Introduction 2.1 Description 2.2 Abbreviations CHAPTER 2: Introduction 3. Getting Started 3.1 Inspection 3.2 Configuration Figure 3-1. Factory-Default Settings. SW3 SW2 SW1 3.3 Serial Port Settings Figure 3-2. Switch SW1: Selecting the Serial Baud Rate. Figure 3-3. Switch SW1: Selecting the Serial Word Length (Data Bits). Figure 3-4. Switch SW1: Selecting the Serial Stop Bits. Figure 3-5. Switch SW2: Selecting the Serial Parity. Figure 3-6. Switch SW2: Enabling or Disabling Echo. Figure 3-7. Switch SW1: Selecting the Serial Handshake. 3.4 Selecting Terminator Substitution Figure 3-8. Switch SW2: Selecting the Serial Terminator. Figure 3-9. Switch SW3: Selecting the IEEE Bus Terminator. 3.5 Selecting the Mode Figure 3-10. Switch SW2: Selecting the Mode. 3.6 Selecting the IEEE Address Figure 3-11. Switch SW3: Selecting the IEEE Address. 3.7 Feature Selections Figure 3-12. Switch SW1: Enabling or Disabling Talk Back on Terminator in Controller Mode. Figure 3-13. Switch SW2: Enabling or Disabling Talk Back on Timeout in Controller Mode. Figure 3-14. Switch SW1: Enabling or Disabling SRQ on Last Serial Terminator in Peripheral Mode. 3.8 Serial Interface Figure 3-15. Selecting RS-232 or RS-422 Signal Levels. Figure 3-16. Rear View of the Interface Converters Serial Connector. Page Page 3.9 General CAUTION Page RS-232IEEE 488 INTERFACE CONVERTER 4.1 Controller-Mode (Serial to IEEE) Operation 4. Controller Operation 4.2 Serial and IEEE Terminator Substitution 4.3 IEEE Address Selection Figure 4-1. Switch SW3: Selecting the IEEE Address. 4.4 Talk-Back Features Figure 4-2. Switch SW1: Enabling or Disabling Talk-Back on Terminator. Figure 4-3. Switch SW2: Enabling or Disabling Talk-Back on Timeout. Page 4.5 Plotter Applications Figure 4-4. A PC-Based Graphics System. Figure 4-5. Selecting RS-232 Signal Levels. Figure 4-6. Interface Converter Settings for Use with HP 7580A Plotter on an IBM PC. SW2 SW3 SW1 Figure 4-7. MacPlot Configuration Screen. Figure 4-8. A Macintosh Based Graphics System. Interface Converter IEEE 488 RS-422 Page Figure 4-10. Interface Converter Settings for Use with HP 7580A Plotter on a Macintosh. Page 5. Peripheral Operation 5.1 Peripheral-Mode Operation 5.2 Serial and IEEE Input Buffers 5.3 IEEE Data Transfers Page RS-232IEEE 488 INTERFACE CONVERTER Figure 5-1. Switch SW1: Enabling or Disabling SRQ on Last Terminator. Figure 5-2. Serial Poll Status Byte. 5.4 Serial-Poll Status-Byte Register Page 5.5 Use of Serial and Bus Terminators 5.6 IEEE 488 Bus Implementation Page 5.7 IEEE Address Selection Figure 5-3. SW3 View for IEEE Address Selection. 6. IEEE 488 Primer 6.1 History 6.2 General Structure Page Figure 6-1. IEEE 488 Bus Structure. 6.3 Send It to My Address 6.4 Bus Management Lines 6.5 Handshake Lines Figure 6-2. IEEE Bus Handshaking. 6.6 Data Lines 6.7 Multiline Commands Page 6.8 More on Service Requests Page 7.1 Theory of Operation 7. Theory of Operation and Board Layout 7.2 Board Layout CHAPTER 7: Theory of Operation and Board Layout Figure 7-1. Component Layout of the Interface Converters Motherboard. Figure 7-2. Component Layout of the Interface Converters Serial I/O board. APPENDIX A: Sample Dumb-Terminal Program Appendix A. Sample Dumb-Terminal Program Appendix B. Character Codes and IEEE Multiline Messages Page Index INDEX